经济学人143:新小说 胖子是个大问题

　　New fiction
新小说
Fatty issue
胖子是个大问题
A thoughtful new work by an American original.
具有独创精神的美国作家带来富有创见的新作
Big Brother
老大哥》
LIONEL SHRIVER knows the drawbacks of using her own family in her fiction. Famous for the bestselling “We Need to Talk About Kevin”, which won the Orange prize for fiction in 2005, she once lamented¹ that her parents had not yet forgiven her for an unflattering portrait in an earlier book. The rift² was unfortunate, even sad, Ms Shriver noted³, but that did not mean she would not do it again. “Real-life people are like carcasses thrown to a carnivorous pet,” she observed.
兰诺丝薇佛明白，拿自己家人作为小说人物原型问题多多。于2005年获英国柑橘文学奖小说奖的畅销书《凯文怎么了》使丝薇佛声名鹊起，她曾慨叹，因为自己在一部早期作品中对父母描述直白，双亲一直耿耿于怀。丝薇佛表示，与父母产生嫌隙是令人遗憾的，甚至是令人伤心的，但那并不意味着她不会故技重施。她说，“现实中的人物就像抛给食肉动物的畜体，有血有肉。”
胖子是个大问题.jpg
“Big Brother”, Ms Shriver's 12th novel, may be her most plainly autobiographical. The author has written publicly before about her own big brother, an “obscenely smart” man who ultimately ate himself to death. The experience left her with not a few unresolved questions. What moves someone to eat to grotesque⁴ excess? Why is it so hard to deal with food in a healthy way in the overabundant 21st century? And what is the duty of kin⁵ when it comes to helping⁶ someone bent⁷ on self-destruction? These concerns drive her new novel, which considers the fate of a morbidly⁸ obese⁹ man and his sensible, successful 40-something younger sister. Ms Shriver, who has reviewed fiction for The Economist¹⁰, has a knack¹¹ for conveying subtle shifts in family dynamics¹², but this book feels uniquely personal, and is more poignant¹³ for it.
老大哥》是丝薇佛的第12本小说，也可能是她自传痕迹最明显的一部小说。作者在以前公开发表的作品中就曾提到她的老大哥，说他“聪明到让人吃惊”，最后把自己给吃死了。如此经历给丝薇佛留下了不少困惑。是什么动力使一个人暴饮暴食到近乎荒唐的地步？在物产过剩的21世纪，为何健康饮食如此之难？如果要向一个执意自我毁灭的人施以援手，其亲属又肩负哪些责任？对这些问题的关注推动她完成了这部小说，对一个肥胖病患者和他理智、成功、四十来岁的妹妹的命运做出了思考。丝薇佛曾为《经济学人》撰写过小说评论，擅长巧妙传达家人互动时的微妙变化。但这本书似乎更关怀个人，而且更加切中要害。
Pandora Halfdanarson, the heroine, leads a staid life in Iowa, where ambitions are as modest as the plains are flat. She has a thriving toy business, a contented¹⁴ marriage and a good relationship with her teenage stepchildren. But these dulling comforts have her craving¹⁵ the “splash of anarchy” that a visit from her cool, jazz-playing brother, Edison, would bring.
小说女主人公潘多拉?哈夫达纳森在爱荷华州享受着安稳的生活，那里土地平坦，人们甘于平凡。她的玩具店生意兴隆，婚姻美满，和十几岁的继子女们相处融洽。但波澜不惊的安逸生活让她对“混乱的波澜”心生向往，这份波澜，将由爱迪生—她玩爵士乐的哥哥—带给她。
After years of limited contact, however, the sight of him comes as a shock. Her once handsome and sylphlike brother has become a mountain of flesh in a double-wide wheelchair, his jazz-pianist fingers bulging¹⁶ like bratwurst just before the skin splits. “It was rude to stare, and even ruder to cry.” Struggling, Edison hopes to stay with Pandora and her family for a little while. But his presence is outsized and disruptive, his appetites epic¹⁷, his boastful stories tinged¹⁸ with resentment¹⁹ (“Hey I've played with some heavy cats, dig?”). Edison's bombast²⁰ strains Pandora's marriage and disturbs the balance of her life, especially after she hatches a dramatic plan to slim him down in order to save him.
兄妹间多年少有联络，再见面时，妹妹被哥哥吓了一跳。她原本相貌英俊、身形窈窕的哥哥如今成了一座瘫在加宽轮椅上的肉山，曾经弹奏爵士钢琴的手指如今鼓胀得像肠衣即将爆裂的德式香肠。“瞪眼直视俨然成了无礼冒犯，泪流满面则更甚。”爱迪生努力想同潘多拉一家人待一段时间。但他身形庞大，到处添乱，胃口惊人，自吹自擂的故事里还捎带着忿恨爱迪生的胡吹乱侃让潘多拉的婚姻关系变得紧张，扰乱了她平静的生活。为了挽救哥哥，潘多拉想出了一个戏剧性的方案来帮他减肥，之后一切更是乱了套。
With “Big Brother”, Ms Shriver offers some sage²¹ observations on the pleasures of eating, the link between fat and shame and the struggle to lose weight—a “distinctly bourgeois²² form of suffering”. She suggests that the fundamental problem of food may be that it is “more concept than substance”, an idea of satisfaction if never quite satisfaction itself. The highlight of ingestion is the moment between one bite and the next; actual eating never quite delivers on the tantalising contentment promised between bites.
丝薇佛在《老大哥》中提出了一些富有哲理的看法，涉及饮食的乐趣、肥胖和羞耻的关系以及减肥的努力—她称减肥为“典型的中产阶级痛苦”。她认为食物最根本的问题也许在于它“更多的是一个概念，而非物质”，强调的是满足感而非满足本身。摄取食物最令人满足的时刻在咬一口和下一口之间，而两口之间那诱人的满足感并不能通过实际的吃来获得。
But this book is not just about bingeing and purging²³. Ms Shriver writes tenderly about marriage, and also about the potency²⁴ of blood ties, which are wonderful and horrible for the same reason: there is “no natural limit to what these people can reasonably expect of you”. Her interior monologues²⁵ are pitch-perfect; her dialogue less so. Yet her main gift as a novelist is a talent for coolly nailing down uncomfortable realities—like the feelings of regret that haunt a sister who asks if she did right by her big brother.
但这不只是一本探讨暴饮暴食和心灵净化的书。丝薇佛充满温情地描绘了婚姻，也将血缘亲情的力量娓娓道来，这份力量既美好又可怕，因为“家人以为对你的期待合情合理，而这份期待其实无边无际”。丝薇佛笔下的内心独白精彩异常，对话稍逊一筹。不过，作为小说家，丝薇佛的天赋在于能够从容地把握令人不安的现实——比如潘多拉不确定自己对哥哥所做的一切是否正确时，那份困扰她的懊悔之情。

1 lamented   

adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• her late lamented husband 她那令人怀念的已故的丈夫
• We lamented over our bad luck. 我们为自己的不幸而悲伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

5 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

8 morbidly   

adv.病态地

参考例句：

• As a result, the mice became morbidly obese and diabetic. 结果，老鼠呈现为病态肥胖和糖尿病。 来自互联网
• He was morbidly fascinated by dead bodies. 他对尸体着魔到近乎病态的程度。 来自互联网

9 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

10 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

11 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

12 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

13 poignant   

adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的

参考例句：

• His lyrics are as acerbic and poignant as they ever have been.他的歌词一如既往的犀利辛辣。
• It is especially poignant that he died on the day before his wedding.他在婚礼前一天去世了，这尤其令人悲恸。

14 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

15 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

16 bulging   

膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱

参考例句：

• Her pockets were bulging with presents. 她的口袋里装满了礼物。
• Conscious of the bulging red folder, Nim told her,"Ask if it's important." 尼姆想到那个鼓鼓囊囊的红色文件夹便告诉她：“问问是不是重要的事。”

17 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

18 tinged   

v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• memories tinged with sadness 略带悲伤的往事
• white petals tinged with blue 略带蓝色的白花瓣

19 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

20 bombast   

n.高调，夸大之辞

参考例句：

• There was no bombast or conceit in his speech.他的演讲并没有夸大其词和自吹自擂。
• Yasha realized that Wolsky's bombast was unnecessary.雅夏看出沃尔斯基是在无中生有地吹嘘。

21 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

22 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。

23 purging   

清洗； 清除； 净化； 洗炉

参考例句：

• You learned the dry-mouthed, fear-purged, purging ecstasy of battle. 你体会到战斗中那种使人嘴巴发干的，战胜了恐惧并排除其他杂念的狂喜。
• Purging databases, configuring, and making other exceptional requests might fall into this category. 比如清空数据库、配置，以及其他特别的请求等都属于这个类别。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

24 potency   

n. 效力，潜能

参考例句：

• Alcohol increases the drug's potency.酒精能增加这种毒品的效力。
• Sunscreen can lose its potency if left over winter in the bathroom cabinet.如果把防晒霜在盥洗室的壁橱里放一个冬天，就有可能失效。

25 monologues   

n.（戏剧）长篇独白( monologue的名词复数 )；滔滔不绝的讲话；独角戏

参考例句：

• That film combines real testimonials with monologues read by actors. 电影中既有真人讲的真事，也有演员的独白。 来自互联网
• Her monologues may help her make sense of her day. 她的独白可以帮助她让她一天的感觉。 来自互联网